Statistics

Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination. - Vin Scully 

Statistics, or stats, are an interesting thing. They are what you make of them. 

I love sports statistics. 

I love being that "stat person" doing a scorebook* and looking at and compiling stats. I enjoy going back through books, days, months or even years later and looking at the stats. Yes, some of it is nostalgia. 

I've written about scorekeeping before.

*Yes, I am good with baseball, and okay with basketball. I need to get better with doing stats in game for other sports. 

That said, I don't need all the fancy, new-age stats, for the most part. 

There is a time and place for them. 

For coaches, stats only tell part of the story. The eye test to see how a player is performing is also part of it. 

In baseball, you can hit four live drives and be 0-4 and someone else can hit four soft bloopers and be 4-4. 

Now, people who are totally stat driven will say this is where exit velocity and launch angle and things of that nature matter. I get it, but I do not need numbers for everything. I can tell by what I watch. 

As Vin Scully said in the quote above, statistics are good to have for a broadcast, but don't need to be relied on. They are good to fit in spots. 

Often, especially at the high school and youth levels, they are non-existent. If you get them, it's a luxury. Certain teams have and share more than others, so it all depends on the program. 

This is why stories are important for broadcasting. There needs to be something besides just the straight play-by-play of what is happening in the game. Otherwise, it sounds boring and there can often be too much dead air. 

I talk a lot about stats in regard to baseball here, but it applies to all sports. It just seems like baseball is the sport where the stats are the most prevalent. Or maybe it's just that I am a baseball person. Or that I am in a baseball mode right now. Or both. 

Overall, stats are great, if used in the correct way.